It appears that you may be blocking the ads, and we are fine with
it (read more here).
That said, it would really be awesome if you decided to whitelist our website or make a donation :)
You can also send us Bitcoins (1DEkropiHPWBmfJxogFaXQscfzhmdpTti4)!

The purpose of the beginner Monk guide is to provide you with a build and item recommendations that will reliably carry you from leveling, through the
pre-Torment difficulties and get you into low Torment farming, without requiring specific legendary or set bonuses. The guide also includes a section for Season 8
Monks, explaining how best to take advantage of the free set from Haedrig's Gifts.

1. About the Author

This build is presented to you by Deadset,
one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players.
Deadset regularly publishes video guides on
Youtube, where you can
see how this and other builds play out in practice.

Note that while the skills and runes recommended in the build are specifically chosen to be available at an early level and remain a solid pick throughout
the leveling and early character progression, you will have to temporarily work with other skills as the build gradually unlocks. To familiarize yourself with the class,
experimentation is strongly encouraged. If you are unsure of how to slot more than one skill from the same skill tree, enable Elective Mode under Gameplay Options.

2.2. Rotation

The build revolves around the AoE efficiency of Exploding PalmShocking Grasp, whose explosion is triggered by Sweeping Wind for minor enemies or
Lashing Tail Kick for elites and big packs. The basic strategy is to close the gap into a pack of enemies using Dashing Strike, and begin applying
and triggering Exploding Palms with your offensive abilities. While the resource costs will be massive, especially for undergeared characters, the build
will successfully maintain Spirit through the highest Spirit generator, Fists of ThunderQuickening, the constant regeneration coming from Inner Storm,
the Exalted Soul passive and the synergy between Mantra of HealingCircular Breathing with Chant of Resonance.

2.3. Skills, Runes and Passives

The basis of every build lies in its chosen damage dealing skills. As they invariably require resource or cooldown management mechanics of some sort, and
such are scarce for low level and less geared characters, you will focus on fewer damage dealing abilities early on. The typical early game build will feature
a dominant damage dealing skill, a mobility skill, buffs and utility skills, and resource generators (either active or passive). The recommended split is:

Slot 1 — AoE Damage: The AoE effectiveness of Exploding Palm (level 13) is the focal point of the build; this signature Monk ability
applies a 9-second DoT on an enemy, with a powerful explosion triggering if the target dies within the duration of the bleeding effect. While you can temporarily
work with lower level runes like The Flesh is Weak (level 18) and Strong Spirit (level 25), the recommended rune for early game is Shocking Grasp
(level 44), which applies Exploding Palm to an additional target for each cast, doubling its efficiency per Spirit spent. You will be assisting the
Exploding Palm DoT to trigger the explosions with a hard-hitting Spirit spender and some supplementary DPS.

Slot 2 — Damage Spirit Spender: Lashing Tail Kick is the first Spirit spender to unlock for Monks, available at level 2. It also has the
highest DPS per Spirit point spent ratio, especially with its Fire rune Vulture Claw Kick — helpfully unlocking at level 7. You can skyrocket its
damage even further with a gambling strategy outlined below, in the gearing section.

Slot 3 Supplementary DPS/Utility: Against enemies with smaller health pools, the Exploding Palm trigger can be realistically achieved with a
helpful push from Sweeping Wind (level 21). Sweeping Wind will provide you with a constant source of AoE damage and is a great learning tool for Diablo
combat dynamics, as it sustains for free as long as you keep fighting. This encourages you to stay mobile and aware of the playing field. You can experiment with the
runes as you go up in levels, but it is recommended that you stick with Inner Storm as soon as you hit level 46; this rune will provide you with 8 Spirit per
second, and will still deliver enough DPS for trash enemies.

Slot 4 — Spirit Generator: With hefty costs of 50 Spirit per Vulture Claw Kick and 40 Spirit per Exploding Palm, you will have to balance
your resources carefully; early on, the best tool at your disposal are simply the class' base generators. You can boost the damage of the default
Fists of Thunder with the Thunderclap rune at level 6, and stick with it all the way to level 42. At that point, you unlock the Quickening rune,
increasing Spirit generation to 20, a value only rivaled by Crippling WaveRising Tide (level 36). You will stay with Quickening for the remainder of your
leveling.

Slot 5 — Mobility: Monks are blessed with the most fluid movement tool in the game, Dashing Strike, as early as level 9. With two charges stored by
default and the additional speed utility of the Way of the Falling Star rune (first rune you attain at level 15), Dashing Strike skill will take you in and out
of danger better than any other skill in the game.

Slot 6 — Mantra: Last but not least, picking a Mantra will provide background benefits with little need of active control, and will also grant a powerful
synergy with your passives. Earlier on you can gain some decent protection out of Mantra of Salvation (level 19), augmented by the Armor boost of Hard Target
(level 24). As soon as you hit level 38 however, swap to Mantra of HealingCircular Breathing to add another source of Spirit regeneration to the build. Note that
you can viably alternate this slot for Mystic AllyAir Ally and your Chant of Resonance passive for Unity, depending on your success with a gambling
strategy outlined below, in the gearing section.

Passives: At level 13, you will expand your pool with 50 Spirit and add a 4 Spirit per second regenerative effect with Exalted Soul. You will get another
4 Spirit per second at level 20, from the synergy between Chant of Resonance and your currently active Mantra (likely Mantra of Salvation at the time). The staple
Toughness passive of Monks, Harmony, arrives at level 45; it fuels your All Resistance with 40% of the single elemental resistance per piece of gear (i.e. 100 Fire
Resistance roll on the boots will add 100 to your sheet Fire Resistance and add 40 to your other resists.) You can finalize your passives at level 66 by adding the
Momentum, a 20% additive damage increase as long as you stay mobile when fighting. The 25-yard requirement is not a long distance and occurs naturally when
farming, while also serving you as a gear check. If you rarely benefit from its bonus, it means you are pushing against the limits of your gear and lowering the difficulty
for efficient farming speed is highly advisable.

2.4. Gear and Stats Priorities

As the leveling process in Diablo 3 is relatively quick, specific legendary recommendations are impossible. During leveling finding upgrades is frequent, so
your gear will be swapped in and out within the span of a few minutes. Following the in-game comparison system and the stat priorities outlined in the tables below will
result in a solid character throughout the leveling journey.

Note that skill damage and elemental damage recommendations only apply if the majority of your damage is done through that skill or element. For alt
characters however, sockets take priority above all other attributes, since you can slot high level gems and benefit massively from their stat increase. For
the purposes of an alt character, leveling a Gem of Ease to level 25 and socketing it in a level 70 weapon will be the single biggest boost you can
provide to the leveling process.

The bloodshard gambling strategy mentioned in the gearing section hinges on a key gearing slot for Monks, the boots. Two pairs of boots with extremely powerful legendary
effects — The Crudest Boots and Rivera Dancers — have a level requirement of 8, making them available to drop very early on, or be gambled as early
as level 1. This enables the gambling strat of creating a level 1 Monk alt on the side, and gambling the bloodshards from your main on low level boots — quickly yielding
The Crudest Boots and/or Rivera Dancers from the tiny RNG pool of a starting character. There is another crucial legendary for the class, but in another slot
— Gungdo Gear, an Exploding Palm-augmenting bracer with a level 10 requirement, meaning it can also be gambled at level 1. Though the pool of Monk bracers
is diluted even early on, the other possible gambles can also be quite helpful (Pinto's Pride and Cesar's Memento), so do not be shy to gamble leftover bloodshards
on the slot. All these items will sport level 1 stats that will make them obsolete for endgame, but their bonuses are powerful enough to carry you throughout leveling, and are
to be cubed immediately at level 70.

3. Season 8 Starter Build

3.1. Haedrig's Gift

Completion of certain seasonal chapters (II, III and IV in Season 8) yields Haedrig's Gifts, a cache-like reward that drops two pieces of a fixed class-specific
set. With the completion of these chapters, you will have a full 6- piece set bonus available to you, skyrocketing your character power well into the mid-to-high
Torments. This makes the early portion of the Seasonal Journey your first priority upon reaching max level. The Season 8 Haedrig's Gift for Monks is the Uliana's Strategem
set.

Uliana builds are heavily focused on their Seven-Sided Strike — Exploding Palm interaction, with the former detonating the latter in massive AoE
bursts via the 6-piece bonus. Prior to that, and especially prior to obtaining the 4-piece bonus, Seven-Sided Strike will mostly be used to finish off monsters
that had Exploding Palm applied via generator attacks (a mechanic attained from the earliest, 2-piece set bonus). Your basic goal will be to spread Exploding Palm
with your generator, and then finish a debuffed enemy off with a combination of regular attacks and Seven-Sided Strikes. You will be speeding yourself up with
Dashing Strike and Mantra of ConvictionAnnihilation, and protecting yourself with EpiphanyDesert Shroud.

Slots 1 and 2 — Set Mechanics: Due to the way Uliana's set is built, two skills are non-negotiable inclusions to the playstyle. Your main damage dealer will be
Exploding Palm, applied in various ways: from generators via the 2-piece set bonus, from Seven-Sided Strike (if you choose to cube a Madstone), and from a
key priority legendary for the playstyle, Gungdo Gear. Seven-Sided Strike is also necessary for the playstyle, not only as supplementary damage (4-piece bonus), but
also to detonate Exploding Palms on living enemies, circumventing the usual on-death requirement of the skill.

Slot 3 — Generator: You will be including a resource generating attack not only to sustain Spirit for the hefty Seven-Sided Strike price, but also to
spread Exploding Palm through the 2-piece set bonus. Way of the Hundred Fists is the usual recommendation for Uliana Monks, as it can augment the damage of EP detonations
with the endgame rune Assimilation, or speed you up during early game farming with the rune Blazing Fists.

Slot 4 — Mobility: You will keep the signature movement tool of Monks, Dashing Strike, to take the "locked position" fighting style of Uliana from one brawl
to the next. The recommended rune for early farming is Way of the Falling Star, as it offers the most flexible mobility in the random rift layouts.

Slots 5 and 6 — Utility: With damage taken care of, the remaining slots should be filled up by personal protection and utility. Another Monk mainstay is the
protective EpiphanyDesert Shroud, which synergizes well with a build that dives into the fray to deliver its damage; the added mobility and Spirit regen are just extras on
top. Monks usually finish builds off with a Mantra, and you can tailor your choice according to your needs: the farming-oriented movement increase of Mantra of ConvictionAnnihilation,
the strong defensive Mantra of SalvationAgility, or the party-wide attack speed buff of Mantra of RetributionTransgression.

Passives: Uliana builds expose themselves to danger by the nature of the playstyle, so taking solid defensive passives like the Near Death Experience second life
and the bulwark Harmony is recommended. The build hinges on cooldowns, so Beacon of Ytar is another logical inclusion. Finally, Mythic Rhythm is a massively strong,
but very timing and situation-sensitive buff that uniquely synergizes with the Uliana playstyle and is universally included in it. For more indepth information on the use of
Mythic Rhythm, consult the main Uliana build guide.

The build above is specifically created not to require any additional sets or legendary items. In order to transition to a late game-oriented spec using the same set, we have a rough
list of high priority items to obtain, as well as a link to the build they pertain to.

4. Other Set Starter Builds

While you get a fixed free set at the start of every Season, it is not unreasonable to assume you will attain other sets in quick succession. If you are interested in switching
around your playstyle, take a look at the beginner points for other sets below, and note to which endgame builds they point you after.

Raiment builds fight with no-nonsense martial prowess, pummeling demons down with fists alone; the chosen primary for the purpose will be Crippling Wave. You
will retain Exploding Palm from the leveling build, applying it on lower health enemies and punching them into living AoE detonations. Your battle opener will be
to Dashing Strike into a fight, triggering damage bonuses from Momentum, Radiance and, when attained, the 6-piece bonuses of Raiment. Draw
enemies in with a Cyclone Strike, then mow them down with Crippling Wave and Exploding Palm. Due to its long cooldown in beginner builds, only pop
EpiphanyDesert Shroud when you engage in prolonged, dangerous fights.

Due to the focus of the Raiment set on generator skills for damage, you will modify the beginner build to drop spenders and resource regeneration skills, and focus on
attack speed and utility instead. The recommended split is:

Slot 1 — Primary Damage Dealer: The preferred primary skill (which you can take all the way into the endgame) is Crippling Wave, and you will best
match the skill's base debuffing utility and excellent AoE with the additional damage of the Mangle rune.

Slot 2 — Supplementary DPS: Early in character progression, you should keep Exploding PalmShocking Grasp for some additional AoE damage, as you will
have plenty of Spirit to work with in a generator-focused build. Later on, when you transition into a Shenlong set generator build, you will swap this slot for the bursty
Spirit regeneration of Breath of HeavenInfused with Light.

Slot 3 — Mobility: Naturally, you will keep the Monk signature mobility skill, Dashing Strike — not only for farming efficiency, but also taking
the Raiment 6-piece bonus (primary skill damage increases for 6 seconds after Dashing Strike) into account. You will feed into the focus of Raiment builds by picking the
Radiance rune, whose Attack Speed bonuses will add nicely to your damage.

Slot 4 & 5 — Utility: You will be using the Monk's strongest pull ability, Cyclone StrikeImplosion, to draw enemies right into your Mangle radius.
Notably, Cyclone Strike will also trigger Lefebvre's Soliloquy once you acquire the item, which is an important endgame factor. EpiphanyDesert Shroud offers
powerful damage mitigation and utility bonuses, but its long cooldown (even longer for beginner builds) needs to be accounted for; only trigger the skill when fighting enemies
that are either significant in number (large packs) or difficulty (elites with hard affixes and Rift Guardians).

Slot 6 — Mantra: You have decent flexibility in your Mantra choice early on; you can bolster your damage with the attack speed bonuses of
Mantra of RetributionTransgression, your survivability with Mantra of SalvationAgility, or your mobility with Mantra of ConvictionAnnihilation. Adjust according
to your needs and preferences.

Passives: Seize the Initiative and Alacrity are Raiment set staples, as they both feed multiplicatively into the all-important Attack Speed of the build.
You will retain Harmony and Momentum from the leveling build, which add significant survivability and a minor damage increase respectively. Note that you
will swap out Momentum as soon as you get a decently geared character and try to push into the endgame; Beacon of Ytar (for Epiphany uptime) and
Exalted Soul (for more Shenlong set damage) are far more important than Momentum's additive damage increase.

The build above is specifically created not to require any additional sets or legendary items. In order to transition to a late game-oriented spec using the same set, we have a rough
list of high priority items to obtain, as well as a link to the build they pertain to.

5. Gear To Look For

Certain items can be targeted through the completion of bounties or boss kills. The following is a list of such items, in order of importance for the class.

Ring of Royal Grandeur is a legendary from Act I caches that reduces the number of set items required for set bonuses by one. While it might not be
immediately useful, obtaining powerful bonuses (such as the 4- and 6- piece set bonuses of the Raiment of a Thousand Storms set) as early as possible for a huge spike in character
power is an opportunity you should not pass up. Doing bounties will be inevitable for crafting materials anyway, so optimize your farming time and get this ring as
soon as possible.

Avarice Band is an Act III cache legendary ring that extends your pickup radius by up to 30 yards as you pick up gold. This unassuming bonus has the potential
to turn in the strongest source of defense during normal rifts due to its synergy with Boon of the Hoarder and Goldwrap. Their powers combined, they can
render your character practically invulnerable even in the highest of Torment difficulties.

Illusory Boots are an Act II cache legendary item that removes enemy collision — a staple of support builds in Greater Rifts, as their precise positioning
for party-wide buffs and enemy disables dictates the course of Greater Rift progress. Monks have been staple supports for many patches now, with several party-wide damage buffs
and plenty of damage reduction to add to the group, making Illusory Boots reasonably attractive to the class.

Reaper's Wraps are meant to assist classes and builds with resource management problems. These bracers restore up to 30% of your Spirit reserves when you get healed by a
health globe — an easy trigger if you keep an eye on the battlefield. Note that these bracers are craftable, and the plan for their creation drops when you kill the Act V boss
Malthael on any difficulty. Reaper's Wraps are reasonably attractive to Monks, as they frequently suffer from resource issues in the early game, before they acquire
Spirit management legendaries like Incense Torch of the Grand Temple or transition into light-spending specs like Raiment set and Uliana set builds.

Gloves of Worship are an Act II cache legendary that extends the duration of Shrines to 10 minutes, a very decent farming effect that is usually stored in Kanai's
Cube. The combined power of Empowered Shrines (doubled resource gain, halved cooldowns), Frenzied Shrines (25% Attack Speed) and Fleeting Shrines (25% increase to Movement Speed and
20-yard pickup radius), often refreshing before their 10-minute duration, is a huge buff during normal rifts. Monks are among the classes that can benefit from
Gloves of Worship, as the armor Cube slots of their most common farming specs are often flexible enough to fit the item in.

Envious Blade is an Act II cache dagger with one of the most powerful speedfarming bonuses in the game — a guaranteed Critical Hit against enemies at full
health. A well equipped character using this dagger can oneshot entire screens of enemies in a suitable farming difficulty. While class-specific legendaries are generally considered
more important to Monk builds, Envious Blade is a decent option for a Cube effect in the weapon slot.

Pride's Fall is a helm obtained through Act III cache bounties, whose legendary effect reduces resource costs by 30% after not taking damage for 5 seconds. Almost never
fighting at a range that can abuse this power, Monks do not consider farming Pride's Fall a priority.

The majority of the gear will be found by random chance as you farm normally, by killing monsters, opening chests, gambling at Kadala and upgrading rare items at the Cube.
While the list below is not exhaustive, these are some of the pieces to seek, spend blood shards on, or upgrade yellows for — in order of priority:

Sets: While the seasonal journey will reward you with a complete set through Haedrig's Gifts, gambling for armor set pieces still makes sense — to improve lackluster
pieces, or complete class sets other than the gifted one. The Monk sets are:

The weapon is by far the most impactful item on your damage output, putting a priority on the weapon slot as the first to obtain an ancient item for. Due to its higher
bloodshard cost (75 for weapons vs. 25 for armor pieces and offhands), you should delay weapon gambling — avoiding it at the start of character progression and only
considering it when you start perfecting your gear. If you simply need a specific weapon, you will get a much better deal with the Upgrade Rare recipe in Kanai's Cube. The Hope
of Cain recipe (1 rare item, 25 Death's Breaths, 50 of white, blue and yellow crafting materials) will only produce the type of item you put in (i.e. fist weapons), cutting out all other
weapons from the RNG pool that you would have to deal with through regular gambling at Kadala. Fist Weapons and Daibos are the Monk-specific weapons you can easily target through
upgrading rares, with valuable and build-defining pieces such as the Shenlong's Spirit set (Shenlong's Fist of Legend and Shenlong's Relentless Assault), Crystal Fist,
Fleshrake, Scarbringer, The Fist of Az'Turrasq, Kyoshiro's Blade, Lion's Claw, Vengeful Wind, The Flow of Eternity,
Incense Torch of the Grand Temple and Flying Dragon. Other weapons valuable to the Monk include In-geom, The Furnace and Istvan's Paired Blades set
(The Slanderer and Little Rogue).

As previously mentioned in the gearing section, the Monk has only two important pairs of boots, but they both feed into powerful Monk playstyles: The Crudest Boots for
Inna set Monks and Rivera Dancers for Sunwuko Lashing Tail Kick Monks. If you are attracted into any of these playstyles, consider investing bloodshards into the slot
even after the early game gambling strat, in order to obtain endgame versions of these two items.

While the slot lacks a quantity of valuable legendaries, belts make up with quality: Kyoshiro's Soul is crucial for any Sunwuko build, Binding of the Lost is a vital part
of the Uliana playstyle, and the cross-class The Witching Hour and Goldwrap are a centerpieces for certain Progression and Torment builds respectively.

Most remaining armor slots only have one or two desirable items for Monks, and it is preferable to leave them to drop from normal farming instead of wasting shards and materials
on the numerous possible duds for the slot. In the long run, you will want to find Cindercoat (chest piece); Lefebvre's Soliloquy (shoulders) and Depth Diggers
(pants).

6. Stat Priorities

Slot

Stat Priority

Head

Dexterity

Socket

Critical Hit Chance

Vitality

Shoulders

Dexterity

Vitality

All Resistance

Area Damage

Torso

Dexterity

3 Sockets

Vitality

All Resistance

Wrists

Dexterity

Critical Hit Chance

Elemental Damage

Vitality

Hands

Dexterity

Critical Hit Chance

Critical Hit Damage

Vitality

Waist

Dexterity

Vitality

All Resistance

Life %

Legs

Dexterity

2 Sockets

Vitality

All Resistance

Feet

Dexterity

Movement Speed

Vitality

Skill Damage if applicable

Amulet

Socket

Critical Hit Chance

Critical Hit Damage

Elemental Damage

Dexterity

Rings

Socket

Critical Hit Chance

Critical Hit Damage

Dexterity

Weapon

High Damage Range

Dexterity

Socket

% Damage

Off-hand

Dexterity

Critical Hit Chance

Attack Speed

Skill Damage

Vitality

7. Paragon Points

Slot

Paragon Points

Core

Movement Speed up to 25% cap

Dexterity

Maximum Spirit (depends on build)

Vitality

Offense

Critical Hit Damage

Critical Hit Chance

Cooldown Reduction

Attack Speed

Defense

All Resistance

Armor

Life %

Life Regeneration

Utility

Resource Cost Reduction

Area Damage

Life on Hit

Gold Find

8. Gems

Your armor and weapon sockets should be taken up by the highest tier Emerald gems you can afford at the time, while the helm is best filled by a Diamond gem
for a boost to Cooldown Reduction. When you stumble upon jewelry with good primary stats and a socket, you should start dabbling into Legendary Gems.
The Legendary Gems to consider for Monks are, in order of importance:

9. Gems

Your armor and weapon sockets should be taken up by the highest tier Emerald gems you can afford at the time, while the helm is best filled by a Diamond gem
for a boost to Cooldown Reduction. If you stumble upon jewelry with good crit stats and a socket, you can also start dabbling into Legendary Gems. At the lower
gem levels, ones with individual damage procs like Wreath of Lightning, Pain Enhancer and Gem of Efficacious Toxin will yield the best result
per gem level.

Bane of the Trapped — staple multiplicative damage increase. The gem will proc itself with its level 25 property in melee range (where most Monk
builds fight), or through item effects like the slow from Pinto's Pride.

Bane of the Stricken — almost mandatory gem for Greater Rift progression, as it is designed to whittle down the scaling health numbers of monsters
with a percentage-based increase on successive attacks.